After their sixth one-two of the year, there were some revealing comments made by Toto Wolff, the Mercedes boss, on Sunday night.

While the team have done their best to keep the two sides of the garage sharing all their information, clearly in recent races that has taken something of a hit.

“The atmosphere wasn’t like in the races before,” Wolff revealed. “We see that it’s getting very competitive. Transparency is suffering a little bit. And we need to make sure this is not detrimental to the team.

“We need the knowledge of the whole group. We need the whole group working together, not only the drivers but the engineers on both sides of the garage.”

Many predicted this would be the natural consequence of such an intense fight between team-mates. It will be difficult for Mercedes to reverse that trend.

Red Bull reaching the end of their tether with Renault

It would be an understatement to say that relations between Milton Keynes and Viry-Chatillon have reached their lowest ebb.

Dr Helmut Marko – Red Bull ‘motorsport advisor’ and right-hand man to billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz – is not one to mince his words and he continued in that vein at the team’s home grand prix.

"We will have a look at where the engine is standing after this weekend and then we will see what we can achieve with this engine," he told Sky’s Martin Brundle.

"If we don't see a possibility to be on a same level with Mercedes then we will have to look for alternatives.

"You should never say no [to a Red Bull engine]. We are looking at all alternatives."

Christian Horner, team principal, also admitted that things were reaching a “pressure point”. It is not hard to see why.

The Red Bull chassis is widely regarded as one of the finest if not the finest on the grid, but they don’t have a hope of competing with Mercedes largely due to their feeble Renault power.

Horner was even more forthright after a dismal race in which all they could manage was eighth for Daniel Ricciardo.

“It’s frustrating. We’re in the situation that we are. We’ve had a lot of success with Renault, we’ve won all the races and championships with Renault, but the situation just isn’t improving at the moment. Reliability is unacceptable, performance is unacceptable, and there needs to be change at Renault. It can’t continue like this. It’s not good for Renault and it’s not good for Red Bull.

“We need to work together as partners. There will not be another engine in the back of the car next year, but we want to be competitive, we want to run at the front. These kind of issues can’t and shouldn’t happen.

“Something needs to happen. Whatever is being done there at the moment isn’t working. It’s not our business, it’s not our responsibility. We’re the end user and it’s frustrating that the product isn’t where it needs to be.”

Sources from other Renault teams have also suggested there is not much hope of the French manufacturer making a dramatic step forward next year. “With the regulations the way they are, there isn’t much room for manoeuvre. It’s not surprising Mercedes are ahead – they spent about three times as much and have about three times as many people.”

Red Bull know all this. And after a particularly galling qualifying and race, it would not be surprising if plans for a Red Bull engine become more fully formed in the coming months. One of Adrian Newey’s technology projects perhaps?

Rebellious teams impotent to retaliate

It’s been the row that has threatened to bring the European Union back into Formula One more than a decade after they last cast their bureaucratic eyes over the sport. It may still, but in all likelihood it will have to be of the EU’s own volition.

Cost caps or far-reaching cost control – something four teams in particular have been fighting for – seems over for this year. That is no great surprise. Why would Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren or Mercedes want to spend less and potentially damage their competitiveness? As Christian Horner (Red Bull) often points out, it is not his job to try and look after the good of Formula One, rather it is to win as many races and championships as possible.

At the moment there is almost nothing Caterham, Force India, Marussia, Sauber can do. They see the agenda of the sport’s owners CVC as customer cars and their eventual demise. How to respond? Well it’s fair to say if they went to the EU they would be crucified. Some sources have suggested that Bernie Ecclestone, via intermediaries, has let it be known that if the EU were to get involved all subsidy payments would be temporarily put into a holding account, leaving the smallest teams desperately short of cash.

The real subject of the smaller teams’ ire has been the FIA, and its president, Jean Todt. Publicly, Sauber’s Monisha Kaltenborn, said: “In my understanding I really wonder what the FIA is now going to do and how Formula 1 is going to be governed in this respect." Privately they are even more strident.

It is difficult to see where this now goes. There is a meeting of the World Motorsport Council this week which will rubberstamp the relatively modest savings, but then it is a case of how much the smaller teams are prepared to risk to get their way. My feeling is not a lot.

Mateschitz knows how to put on a show

Apart from some slightly comical and diabolical traffic organisation on the Thursday – Eric Boullier and a few other McLaren bigwigs ended up abandoning their taxi and walking the last few miles – the return to Austria and the resplendent Red Bull Ring has been a welcome one.

The facilities are excellent (the view from the media centre, below, is surely one of the finest in the world, with almost the entire track visible), the setting is stunning, it’s a decent little track and, mercifully, they have left in REAL gravel traps. Finally, a race where drivers mistakes are punished with more than a gentle trip onto some concrete run-off.

Mateschitz spent around £60 million sprucing this place up - in the world of a billionaire that’s just small change. Hopefully it stays on the calendar for a while.

Hamilton is showing himself far from unbeatable

After his fourth straight victory at the Spanish Grand Prix last month, Niki Lauda, the Mercedes F1 chairman, could not have been more emphatic.

“Lewis is unbeatable – it’s very simple to say. Because he’s getting better and better every race, he makes no b----- mistake whatsoever and nobody can beat him at the moment.

“Lewis is outstanding at the moment. Nobody can beat him. Very simple.”

In the month or so since the evidence has suggested otherwise. This is not an attempt to go out of my way and criticise Hamilton who, after all, is perhaps the most talented driver Britain has ever had, but there have been a few critical mistakes which have cost him dearly.

First, there was on Monaco. On the face of it, he did the best he could. But by going out second at the end of qualifying on a street circuit you always take the risk that you will have to abandon your lap. That left him second on the grid and with little hope of winning the race.

In Canada, once tensions had died down with Nico Rosberg, he seemed to have the measure of the German all weekend. Unfortunately however, a slight mistake on his final qualifying effort cost him. The result? He ended up following Rosberg for most of the race which could have caused his brakes to terminally overheat. The Briton almost admitted as much in Austria. And then this weekend he made two mistakes in qualifying, costing him the opportunity at pole.

Incredibly fast and extraordinarily talented? Yes. Unbeatable? Not at the moment.